I Never Promised You A Rose Garden
by Tigerdust
Summary: That rules lecture of the Doctor's needs a bit of an object lesson, because nobody pays attention anymore. Done for lj friend pickledminx who wanted a Donna and Rose and I was happy to oblige.


"See? I told you I would take you to the Medusa Cascade!" The Doctor strode amongst the flowers gleefully, glad to be back in his normal outfit after the renaissance trip had caused much complaint about breeches and long coats. And that was just him complaining. The Doctor didn't even want to remember Donna's yowls about the corsets, no matter how luscious it had made her female firmaments look. He smiled. Donna hated when he called them that.

"What are you smiling about? Sense of self accomplishment?"

"Nothing. Well, it's not nothing, but you've expressed interest in not hearing every babble that comes from my brain. Although, Lord knows, it could be utterly useful information I'm spewing and you just continue to...."

Donna walked out into the breathtaking field. "It's not right to call this the Medusa Cascade. The Gorgons, if that fun little family we saved from Pompeii was to be believed, were some ugly snake women creatures. This is more Megara or Pegasus territory, mind."

The Doctor joined her at the edge of the field. White cliffs that reminded the Doctor of a few regenerations ago in Dover greeted his sight and he warmed to them, in memory and in anticipation. "The've already got one of those each, although Lord knows they could use renaming of a few things around the systems. Youngsters don't even count much as far as history goes."

"It's not they're fault. They'll come around." Donna was appropriately mystified by the beauty of the world around her, securely hanging in the midst of a secret waterfall of cave in something that reminded her of a picture of a human eye socket hanging in the uncharted Medusa Cascade. A place that could not seem to be touched by war or evil. "Doctor, when are we?"

"Well...." the Doctor began and Donna knew she was in for a recitation. She didn't mind so much. She loved playing the "which tooth has a lodge of spinach this time" game until she could say something to further distract him. "It's not so much the time Donna, as the place. Granted, we are here at a fixed point in time however I can't be alternately sure if it's a past Cascade experience or a Future cascade experience. I'm utterly sure that the future us would not bump in here, but I've taken the liberties of...."

"Yes, space man. You're brainy. We get it." Donna bent down, allowing her fiery hair to sweep across her bosom. Careful not to hurt the grassy carpet, she plucked a single rose from a frame of alien wildflowers. It was an entrancing shade of pink with pale blue around the lid, as though it were wearing frosted mascara. Pollen shuddered from the tips, dusting Donna's hand as though it were fairy magic.

The Doctor observed the sky and the vast vista before them. "Donna, I've always been curious to know why you would ask the questions if you never want to hear the answers."

"Honestly?"

"I would say that would be refreshing, but you've never been short on it."

Donna frowned at the Doctor, half-heartedly. It was infuriating to never be angry at a man who always seemed to be on the short end of right and had an infallible optimism, even in utter danger. "Mostly it's so that I can explore about without you harking at me over trouble."

"You do seem to get in a lot of it."

"And so I should, shouldn't I? You have me trekking about the universe in heels and you don't even have the decency to let me go off once without the rules lecture."

The Doctor's spine stiffened. "The rules are set in place for a reason."

Donna waved her face about, mimicking the Doctor. "Yes, but there's no accounting for fun then, is there? What's the point of exploring if you never get to keep the peace or pluck a flower?"

The Doctor furrowed his brow suspiciously. "Why did you specifically say pluck a flower?"

"I just did!" She held her bosom out and high, noting the still-glowing flower plunged into her neck-line. "It matches the dress and the eyeshadow perfectly."

The Doctor's eye went wide. "Donna, put that back!"

"What is it?"

The Doctor spread his arms out. "Wherever you found it, put it back!'

Donna's voice raised to its impatient level. "Well, I don't know where I found it. We're standing in a bloody field of flowers, aren't we?"

The Doctor was already on his knees, looking for the missing space. His voice cracked a bit. "Donna, do you know why they call this the Medusa Cascade even though it's not remotely as barren or ugly as the Gorgons themselves?"

Donna ventured a guess. "Whimsical irony?"

The Doctor paused. "Well, yes, I mean, but that's not it. When Jason goes to slay the Gorgon, he first visits the Oracles, who tell him how to defeat her. The flowers represent people of great destiny. Plucking them will take you back to a moment in their great destiny and I have no idea whose flower that is."

"At least Earth human, right?"

The Doctor gulped and Donna fell to her knees in panic. "Find that frame of alien wildflowers, Doctor!"

"Okay. Don't panic. We'll just retrace your steps, we haven't been that far."

"This is not a time for a weight joke, Doctor!"

"I was not making a joke about your female firmaments!"

Donna looked up at him sternly. "This is not the time. Tell me if something happens that you'll be able to track me!

The Doctor turned a shade pale and gulped, speaking rote. "If something happens, I'll be able to find you."

Donna screamed on the inside. "Find those bloody wildflowers!" And then she began to sneeze.

The Doctor shook his head. "Watch the sneezes! We can't afford to tilt any more of them over!"

"I'm not," Donna returned, "It's the bloody pollen!"

Each bloom that Donna passed produced more pollen to add to that dripping from the flower still clinging to her cleavage. Pretty soon, the pollen reached firefly at twilight pandemic size and the Doctor was having trouble keeping track of the flowers. It was too much chaos, even for a Time Lord with a frightened companion.

Donna did find the hole, but just in enough time to find that the flower was drawn to it magnetically along with her. She felt herself slipping into the ground and then moving through the center of the Cascade. She could breathe in this space, but she was falling rapidly. This made no sense to Donna considering she was pretty sure space had no gravity. But she did continue to fall and it became darker and darker.

She finally collapsed onto a floor of some kind. It was cold and she was exhausted from all the falling. Falling doesn't give a great chance of stopping to check your watch or halting a scream. It's also hell on the wind damage to your hair, even if that morning was your Pantene routine. Donna was concerned about being on her own without the Doctor, but she was safe in the knowledge that the Doctor would search for her as long as it took. When he spoke of Rose, it was as though he knew he would never stop searching. It was rare to hear of her though.

Donna's vision became clear and she was pretty sure that she was on Earth. The few humans praying in the large chapel were either having their language masked by residual effects from the Tardis or were indeed speaking proper English. She also noted as she walked that she was neither invisible or terrifically welcomed in this place.

A girl came barging through the door with a man whom Donna assumed was her father. The girl was winded, her somewhat short blond hair a terrific mess but still wholly blond and beautiful. Her intelligent eyes were a gift of his own and his jovial smile was hidden somewhere beneath her mother's cheeks. The man was dusting himself off while the girl was checking her pockets to make sure nothing had fallen out.

Donna couldn't quite manage to unlock the door on her own and couldn't understand why. It wasn't absurdly heavy looking and the sound of traffic on the other side meant that people did indeed traffic in and out. The father and daughter were talking and she intruded to ask for help. The girl nodded and rose, opening the door quite swiftly.

"I'm sorry for interrupting."

"It's quite alright. I'm spending time with my dad." Her face seemed to blossom under the sentiment.

"That's nice." Donna went through the door without a second thought, muttering something about the Doctor and time periods and finding some sort of map back to the Tardis.

The girl called back to Donna from the open door. "Wait. Did you say you need a doctor or the Doctor?"

Donna bounded back. "What do you know about the Doctor?"

Rose held out her hand. "I'm Rose. We're traveling together."

Donna took the hand and entered the church again. "I'm Donna. I've misplaced him, but we're traveling together as well."

Rose giggled. "That does seem to happen quite a bit. Come, meet my father!"

Donna allowed Rosed to lead her back to the pew. "Dad, this is Donna. She's a friend of my...boss."

Pete, upon further examination, was a bit frazzled but put on a good front. "Oh! Rose has told me some wonderful things about the Doctor!"

Donna gulped. Something about the man was out of place. "Yes. Wonderful things do seem to happen around him."

"Exhilarating."

"Strange."

"But always safe."

Donna nodded. "Most prominently. Except for...."

"...when it's not." Rose finished darkly.

Pete cocked his head. "That doesn't describe him very well as a time traveler, does it? Seems rather aloof if you ask me."

Donna blinked. "Have you been traveling with the Doctor as well? He doesn't mention many males...except for Jack and K-9."

Pete grabbed onto Rose. "All I know is that he's brought my girl back to save me from being crushed by a vehicle. We have so much more time together and look how wonderful she grows to be!"

Donna gulped. "Yes...well...may we have a moment over here?"

Rose followed the way Donna signaled. "You can't be serious. Did you fall asleep during the millionth messing with time lecture?"

"I actually play Hangman with the Tardis during those. Why?"

Donna spoke a little louder. "Because you're being daft! I mean, I do it in good fun, but you can't just go saving people who shouldn't survive."

Rose narrowed her view of Donna. "Why not? He's my father."

Donna bit down on her lip, but she didn't have to answer her question. Pete did instead. "Rose!" He called her name in a sort of panic.

"It'll be just a moment!" Rose called back to her dad.

Pete stuttered. "I'm not sure it can wait that long, sweetie!"

Donna turned her head with Rose. "Why? What is it? I'm trying to explain to Rose why not to..."

Donna didn't close her mouth for much. There wasn't much she really feared and her sense of exploration usually pushed that into overdrive. However, a giant white sucking vortex in the middle of a church creating earthquakes all around was enough to make her officially frightened. She ran in heels down British streets she was so afraid, but the vortex kept getting larger. It seemed to be..following them.

Pete hollered over the wind that the vortex created. "Does anyone else seem to think it's following us?"

Donna answered back on the other side of Rose. "It's probably because your daughter saved you from that crash."

Pete stopped, causing Rose and Donna to both halt. "What?"

"It's true." Donna's heart wrenched as Rose began to let tears roll down her cheers, wiping them away only slightly enough to dampen her sleeves. "You were supposed to die in that crash, but I just wanted more time. It's been so difficult without you."

"Oh Rose. Don't lose the world for me. I've been a horrible father with horrible inventions. Your mother's not happy with me and neither should you be."

"You're still my dad." Rose exclaimed with a half-smile.

Donna nodded as she motioned away from the consuming vortex. "Yes, yes. Happy family times later, more running from the chaotic vortex now! Where's the Tardis, Rose?"

There was a tremor that caused Donna to fall. A lamp post above her began to crackle and sway. She braced herself for the impact of the glass and steel pole, but felt herself instead being pushed out of the way.

She blinked through her tightly-closed eyes to find Pete bleeding from his skull, Rose crying as he tried to comfort her. Pete was sprawled almost nap-like across the fissures of cement, his head in his daughter's shaking lap.

"No, no." Rose wailed slightly as the tremors begin to calm and the vortex began to move away and back towards the church. It rounded the bend before Donna moved to the scene.

Pete shook his head and then pressed his hands to his lips. "Don't cry, baby girl. You see how much more use I am like this than when I'm alive and inventing? We can't be afraid of destiny, Rose."

"But I need you."

"I'm not so sure. From the looks of it, you've grown into a fine young wo..." Pete ceased talking altogether.

Donna covered her mouth to keep from screaming. "Oh Lord." It was tragedy before her eyes. Then she found the strength and stood, trembling. "You should be getting back to the Tardis."

"No." Rose was adamant, bitter.

"You can't stay here, you can't save him."

Rose gently set her father's head down from her lap to the ground. She stuck her chin out far beyond herself towards Donna. "I am Rose Tyler. I watched the destruction of planet Earth in the future. I was there when mannequins turned to life and I've lost one of the most amazing men in London to jealousy of the Doctor. There is nothing that will get me to go back."

"Yes, there is." Donna spoke softly, but confidently. "And you know why. It's because the Doctor is like the wind in your sail. He makes the world colorful and he babbles about things that he knows you can never expect to identify in this world. He is strong and brave, but only when he's with others. His companions are the brave ones. And you, Rose Tyler, might be the bravest of them all."

"At least I could be with him when he died." Rose may have cried enough that tears simply could no longer form, but she began to walk and then jog away from Donna. Donna hoped she was running to him, to the Tardis.

But then the ground began to quake and tilt at an absurd rate. She felt a sharp pain hit her head and then she awoke, bumping heads with the Doctor.

"What happened?"

"Oh nothing. You just didn't listen and interrupted some great destiny. Who was it, by the way?"

Donna bit her tongue, taking a second. "I don't remember."

The Doctor helped Donna to her feet. "Well, everything looks the same, but I hope you've learned your lesson."

Donna nodded sharply. "Oh, I have. Make sure to get in trouble only when there's a hundred percent chance you are with me." Donna began walking back to the Tardis.

"That's right...I...wait a minute. Donna, I think you're missing the point of the rules lecture!"

Donna called back to him, gingerly making sure she didn't step on any flower. "Maybe it's time you revise it before I start playing checkers with the Tardis!"

The Doctor scratched his head and looked around, a brief wind coming through from the coast. He murmured to himself. "I beg your pardon, Donna. I never promised you a rose garden."


End file.
